The old man shook, ceasing, with tearless sobs, And in hands trembling hid his face from Paul. Paul silently a moment bowed himself-- Like blinded Samson leaning hard against The pillars of the palace of the lords Philistine, so Paul bowed himself against The pillars of Gamaliel's house of trust, In one great throe and agony of prayer; Then said: "O thou hoar head most reverend, My master, how those words of thine pierce me! Far, far more easily have I born all ills, Though many and heavy, that on me have fallen, Than now such words I hear of pained reproach, Thrice grievous as thus gracious, from thy lips. How shall I find wherewith to answer thee? I think thou knowest, my master, that I love My nation, and a thousand times would die To save from death my kindred in the flesh. Not willingly do I seem even to rend The oneness of my people so asunder. Scatter I do not, if I seem to scatter: I sift and choose, and cast the bad away; That is not scattering, it is gathering rather. Nor is it I do this, but by me God. Reprobate silver still some souls will be, And rightly so men call them, for the Lord, He hath rejected them, the judging Lord. This is that word of Malachi fulfilled-- Whom also thou, O master, once, inspired Perhaps, beyond our dreaming, from the Lord, Recalledst, when our seventy elders sat Consulting how most prudently they might Slay those apostles of the Nazarene. Thou warnedst us more wisely than our hearts Were meekly wise enough, enough to heed. For, 'The Lord cometh,' saidst thou then, and, 'Who Of us,' thou askedst, 'who of us shall bide The day of that approach?' 'Not surely he,' Thou answeredst, prophet-wise, 'surely not he, Then found in arms against God and His Christ.' And did not Malachi foretell that He, The Angel of the covenant, should sit As a refiner and a purifier, To purge the sons of Levi of their dross? So sits He now, attending in the heavens, Until appear a people purified, Israel gathered out of Israel, A chosen peculiar people for Himself.
"Thou knowest how I hated once this name, And persecuted to the death His church. I raged against Jehovah; mad and blind, On the thick bosses of His buckler rushed. But He, Jehovah, met me in the way With His sword drawn and slew me where I stood. One stroke, like living lightning, and I fell; Saul was no more, but in his stead was Paul."